Friends anxious to learn who want to acquire knowledge

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suprunp

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180.
Friends anxious to learn who want to acquire knowledge of something together can find in our age of books a shorter and more natural way than 'school' and 'teacher' are.

(Human, All Too Human; The Wanderer and His Shadow; translated by R.J. Hollingdale)

Would not this sentence look better if I put two commas there?

Friends anxious to learn, who want to acquire knowledge of something together, can find in our age of books a shorter and more natural way than 'school' and 'teacher' are.


Thanks.
 

5jj

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1Would not this sentence look better if I put two commas there?

Friends anxious to learn, who want to acquire knowledge of something together, can find in our age of books a shorter and more natural way than 'school' and 'teacher' are.


Thanks.
Yes. The writer may have intended a defining clause (without commas) , but it doesn't work. Your commas change the meaning slightly, but at least ensure that we can read it with some understanding. It's a badly written senetnce, in my opinion.
 

Raymott

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180.
Friends anxious to learn who want to acquire knowledge of something together can find in our age of books a shorter and more natural way than 'school' and 'teacher' are.
(Human, All Too Human; The Wanderer and His Shadow; translated by R.J. Hollingdale)

Would not this sentence look better if I put two commas there?

Friends anxious to learn, who want to acquire knowledge of something together, can find in our age of books a shorter and more natural way than 'school' and 'teacher' are.

Thanks.
Yes, it would. Be aware that all the sentences from that book are second hand (since it's a translation). The original, in whatever language that was, probably did not have commas (and might not have needed them in that language) and the translator, wishing to remain faithful to the original, did not add commas. He might be a better translator than a grammarian.
 
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